Framed Landscape

If yesterday’s post was about the context of landscape and the subject matter (a red shed roof), this photo is about the framing of the landscape. The view looking south west from Goppa hill is framed by trees as you leave the area of the phone mast and ruins and it was this framing of the view that interested me.

It’s good to see so many trees in the middle ground but the distant Gower Peninsula is largely hidden by a haze. The framing effect would perhaps have been stronger if I had stepped back a few feet and caught a little more of the foreground trees.

landscape

Intention and Interpretation

I didn’t have to pick out these photos from the shoot I did on that dreary day in Mumbles – for that matter, I didn’t have to take the photos in the first place. The images were processed and uploaded a week ago and now that I come to write this post, I wonder what my reasoning may have been. What was my intention and what might be my, or your interpretation of them?

I find I am reading things into them now that may have been sub-conscious at the time of production or even post production – but that time to reflect is very valuable. All of the work I have produced as an artist over the years was made over greater or lesser amounts of time, naturally, but just as the meaning of a piece of art can be different for each individual, so it can also change for the artist.

Some of my other art work can be seen here.

Mumbles Lighthouse

Mumbles Lighthouse

Landscape Details

Seen from the Roman road I have been walking along in Carmarthenshire, this view shows a small patch of the landscape in which it is set. Even though the tree in the foreground cuts across the view, I feel that it still does the job of somehow framing the scene, putting the scale and perspective in context.

The monochrome shot of the fence posts is more of a detail of the landscape. Apart from changing it to monochrome I had do some further work on the image. I liked the stance of the fence posts and the tangled texture of the barbed wire but there were one or two distracting objects in the background field that needed removing. One of them was positioned  behind the fence and proved a challenge to remove satisfactorily. Generally I make image adjustments in Lightroom but for more detailed work like that I would open the shot in Photoshop.

Complementary images to my walks this week can be found directly on Instagram or via the sidebar images on the StillWalks blog. Images displayed here and on Instagram are a mixture of iPhone and Canon DSLR photography.

Carmarthenshire

monochrome fence posts

Foreground and Background – What’s the Story

They say a good photo should tell a story. I like the story these images tell me but what story do they tell you?

They are just one chapter in the story of images I am presenting this week from Sunday to Sunday. They were taken as part of a StillWalks production day but as yet I have not had a chance to take this much further.

close focus

Mid focus

Architectural Scale – Is Perspective Real?

I like this photo largely for its composition and the perspective of the buildings,  both real and apparent. I say real and apparent because the buildings themselves are in fact taller than each other going from foreground to background – it’s not just the effect of perspective. I must make a point of taking a photo from the opposite end of the beach and see how they appear in perspective when the most distant building is the tallest!

The photos I have been posting this week were all taken on my iPhone. I seem to be doing this more often now but whether my iphonography is improving is another matter. It is a very convenient way to record observations (and sounds when I don’t have my kit with me) but in order to get effective images with the phone, you have to look at things differently. Angle of shot is probably the most important point . . . but that could be said for DSLR photography as well, I guess!

The photo below would have been grainy anyway, given the time of day and the fading light but there is a tendency for the iPhone camera to over expose when the light is dim. The image you see below is the result of post processing. Unlike a DSLR camera, you have pretty limited options in these circumstances when it comes to telling the camera what to do.

Update – Thanks to  and his iPhone Photography School, I have discovered the PureShot app which allows much more flexibility in shooting from the phone.

Meridian TowerThe buildings are on Swansea seafront – all apartment buildings, the closest being Meridian Tower. The lights in the background are those of the Swansea / Cork Ferry.